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Plein air is a term derived from the French expression “en plein air,” meaning “in the open air,” and specifically refers to the act of painting outdoors.

Cannon Beach’s popular “Plein Air and More” event has grown to three days this year and will include more than two dozen artists represented by Cannon Beach’s art galleries. They will be creating works of art on location throughout the town and on the beach. Many will work in the traditional method of plein air painting, while others will sculpt, and photograph in their own unique styles. Individual galleries will display the finished works and host receptions for the artists.

You’re invited to sit and watch, ask questions, or even pick up your own brushes and participate in a workshop with Michael Orwick, noted plein air painter, in the week leading up to the event

June 22,23,24Michael Orwick Workshop : Painting Coastal Color and LightJoin this noted plein air artist in scenic Cannon Beach and learn how to put life and personality into your landscapes. The workshop is scheduled from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. each day, but Michael is also inviting students to join him for informal sunrise and sunset paint outs at no additional charge.

Open to painters of any level. For more information, contact DragonFire Gallery. 503-436-1533?

June 24
Friday night, 5-7 p.m. “Meet and greet” artists reception

June 25
Saturday 10 a.m.-4 p.m. “Paint out” and more throughout Cannon Beach
Maps of the artists locations will be available at all of the galleries

Saturday evening: Individual Gallery receptions for the artists.

June 26
Sunday 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Plein Air and More Group Show.

Below is a listing of each Gallery Group member and representative work from their participating artists for this event.

If you have specific questions about any of the artists, please contact the galleries directly.

Imagine a place where the mists and storms of the coast swirl around a magical ‘mountain of a Haystack’ rising from the sea, and from every hearth and home emerges writers, singers, composers, painters and sculptors. That is what happens each November in Cannon Beach . These entire forces join together to transform your experience into a festival of creativity filled with music, theater, poetry and art.

This is The Stormy Weather Arts Festival.

Below is the line-up of artists at the thirteen Gallery Group member galleries.

Ben Hammond
Through the years Ben has been dedicating more and more of his time to sculpting. His passion for the beauty of the human figure is exemplified in his art. He has been the recipient of numerous awards, including Dexter Jones Awards for bas-relief by the National Sculpture Society. Ben is also a talented portrait artist and for the past four years has been commissioned to complete portrait busts for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

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Joshua Tobey
In the Tobey household, nature is as much a part of life as art. Perhaps one would not exist without the other. Josh chose sculpture as his focus because he admired the bronze process—but mostly because it’s his favorite art form. To Josh, it’s on a different level because of its physical interaction with everyone that sees it and touches it. Currently he is exploring a combination of figurative studies combined with wildlife.

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Matthew Palmer
By age twelve, Matthew Palmer was creating life-size creatures out of masking tape and newspapers in his basement. Opting to pass on scholarships from various art institutes, he decided to get his training hands on. Working full time at Old World Stone Carving for six years, Matthew gained tremendous experience designing and executing commissioned sculptures and architectural elements. He became skilled at using a variety of traditional media, including stone, marble, clay, wood, and bronze.

Zemula Fleming
Fascinated by the icon and its power to evoke adoration and reverence, Zemula is also inspired by period fashion, ranging from the medieval period to more modern times. In her small paintings and beaded mosaics, Fleming creates a jewel-like window into the persona of imaginary women that look like they have a story to tell.

Michael Orwick
Michael’s skill as a landscape artist creates compelling views of our world that move beyond time and place – places as mysterious as Oregon’s craggy coast, as unpredictable as a glacial view of Mount Hood, or as serene as an Oregon waterfall. His work can conjure up thoughts of Remington in his most enamored moments with the majestic west, or the dance of an impressionist on a pond or the snow.

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Theresa Andreas-O’Leary
Theresa is a self taught painter and muralist. Many pastoral scenes in her paintings reflect time spent living in Europe and South America. She has received numerous regional awards for her work, including the 2006 Chronicle Public Art Award for her composition, Vine Light, which now hangs in Lake Oswego’s City Hall Building. Monet’s quote best describes her work: “Put your hand in mine and let us help one another to see things better.”

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Chuck GumpertChuck majored in art, studying the gamut from drawing and painting, to illustration and advertising design —while specializing in the still emerging field of computer graphics, photo manipulation, and desktop publishing. Often, his paintings develop from “digital studies”, taking on the exploration of projected light and vivid color vs. reflected light and natural color. Energy, light, movement and color all mingle on his canvases into lush, vibrant atmospheres and translucencies.

The natural beauty of the Oregon Coast brought George to Cannon Beach in 1977, and since then his library of digital images has grown to more than 100,000, many of which have appeared in local and national publications. During the Lewis and Clark Expedition’s 200th anniversary, he worked with the Great Falls, Montana Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center, where his image entitled “Clark’s View” is now an 8 foot high wall mural.

John Ebner
John’s passion for the Northwest is manifested through smooth, powerful, yet simplified sweeps of color, which allow his images to suspend time and capture a lasting image of a quiet moment in time. His paintings calm the spirit, allowing the viewer to feel the same serenity as the artist. His latest work in pastel and acrylics allows him to create stronger statements using bolder and more defining interplays of color and lines of movement.

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Michael Sorensen
Michael vibrantly paints the beloved Northwest scenery with personality that is better captured by the imagination than by a camera. From his unexpected color choices that express mood more than reality, to his blending of both looseness and detail, he creates images that relate with people’s memories of their favorite places. His palette full of bright colors allows for the intense movement of his flowing landscapes.

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Michael Tieman
Michael is a local Cannon Beach artist who started sketching and painting as a child. After many years in advertising design, he decided to work full time as an artist. Working initially as a painter, he added sculpture and stone carving to his repertoire. All of his work includes three-dimensional aspects —with his bronzes, the texture is the impasto brushstroke, color is the play of light and shadows across the surfaces and the details are the free style movement of the impressionist style.

James Christensen
Inspired by the world’s myths, fables and tales of imagination, James’ hope is that through whatever he creates-be it porcelain, fine art print, bronze or book-he can convey a message, inspiration or a simple laugh. Christensen has won all the professional art honors the World Science Fiction and Fantasy
Convention can bestow, as well as multiple Chesley Awards from the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists.

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William Phillips
“Aviation was my first artistic love,” says William, “But my true, enduring love remains my faith, home and family. The historical aviation subjects, I research; the contemporary and nostalgic subjects, I live.” Bill is aviation artist of choice for many American heroes and the favorite nostalgic landscape artist for many collectors. He is one of only a few artists to have ever had a one-man show in The Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum.

Suzanne Kindland
Suzanne’s journey into the world of glass began with a dream where she was suspended in a pillar of fire. Turning in the flames she found herself dancing. That dancing continues as she continues to learn the ways of glass, creating with it as her partner and bringing forth objects reminiscent more of water than fire: cool, smooth forms that reflect light as a pond does, sculptures that bend the light as a ripple does, calm creations that transmit light like the stillest pool.

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Mark Gordon
Mark’s first exposure to glass was at 9 years old when he watched a team of Seattle glassblowers on television. He was totally captivated and the rest is history. As an adult, he worked for a time at Icefire, took classes and continued to be encouraged by them as he discovered that the only limitation of glass and how to work with it was his own imagination, experiences and desire.

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Pam Juett
Pam Juett first fell in love with hot glass while watching a demo in Cannon Beach in 1977. After exploring the many ways of working with this amazing medium, she has found her niche in flameworking, making beads that become stunning pieces of wearable art.

Jeffrey Hull
Jeffrey Hull began has painting career over 35 years ago in Cannon Beach, and it is from its coastline that he draws his inspiration. Today he is widely known for his ability to capture the beauty and moods of the places where water joins land, controlling the difficult medium of watercolor, often in very large paintings. Recently he has returned to painting in oil as well, and is rarely found far from the ocean’s edge.

David Jonathan Marshall
With his imaginative style, bold use of color and dramatic perspective, David brings a fresh new look to the art world. His skill at capturing movement and animation in his art is a direct reflection of his own lifestyle and view of the world. He says, “I feel like I’m putting a puzzle together. I paint the pieces of that puzzle, but even I don’t always know what will be seen in the end.”

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Sarah Goodnough
Painting vivid abstract viewscapes, Sarah sources the natural world for her redefined realities of wonder. Inspired by nature and the human spirit, she frequently uses photography taken from her daily walks and world travels as reference and inspiration for her paintings. Her intuitive style of painting, combined with techniques using texture, transparent layers of color and strong composition, create distinctive visual experiences with sensitivity to mood and emotion.

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Thomas Hughes
After making furniture for many years, Thomas took a different tact with his work and began focusing less on function. His kinetic sculpture series of “mechanical theatres” began about 3-1/2 years ago and encompasses many of his interests: folk art, engineering, circuses, birds, kinetic movement, roadside attractions, and woodcarving. They started out with simple mechanisms but each new piece has become more complex.

Eric Jacobsen
In 2001, Art & Antiques Magazine rated plein air painter Eric Jacobsen one of the top 16 emerging artists in America. His awards have included
the significant fellowship he received after completing his studies at the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts in 1995. He is also the recipient of the prestigious
Copely Artist Award, has been recognized by the Oil Painters of America for his contribution, and featured in Southwest Art Magazine and American Art Collector.

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Georgia Gerber
Public sculptor Georgia Gerber won the Cannon Beach public choice vote for “2010 Sculpture Without Walls” for her “Tufted Puffins.” Gerber defines many of our public spaces with works like “Rachael the Pike Place Pig” and the 26 sculptures surrounding downtown Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse. Her bronze sculpture is traditionally crafted requiring 14 labor-intensive steps. She has created a sculpture especially for NW By NW GALLERY titled, “Balancing Deer.”

Jao YingJiao Ying’s unique style of painting emerged from the Yunnan School of China. She seeks a harmonious way of unification between the primitive traditions of the oriental art form with the modern western use of rich warm colors. Her brilliant florals and landscapes feature female figures and water birds painted on both sides of rice paper with watercolor.

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Gary Fenske
Working in the dark for the last 30 years, inventing luminous paints and pioneering techniques with his fluorescing color palette, Mr. Fenske became noted as the master of Luminism.

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Rip Caswell
Rip Caswell’s Bronze Sculptures are museum quality fine art. He specializes in nature inspired wildlife and figurative bronze sculpture and is renowned for his ability to capture the spirit and essence of his subjects.

Sharon Amber
Artist Sharon Amber is best known for her jewelry designs that incorporate local “gems” carved into mermaids, seascapes, and faces bedecked with exotic colored stones. But she can also make the chips fly, carving local sandstone into images related to the sea.

Christopher Mathie
Christopher‘s current fast paced, high-energy painting technique appears spontaneous to on-lookers, but his confident bold marks have been long in the making. His goal is to capture the essence of things. He says, “My intention is to stylize forms into something more like poetry. When I trust myself, knowing my marks are correct without editing… the work flows easily and the joy I feel is immense.”